Cambridge Audio Azur 751BD 3D Blu-ray player

Anglophile audiophile attraction

Tweak to taste

The Azur 751BD has no shortage of user tweaks either. A pure audio mode is ostensibly provided to elevate sound quality, but it has a rather more obvious, practical benefit. You can disable the display to prevent screen-burn on plasmas when playing music.

At 5kg, the Azur 751BD amounts to double the weight of mainstream alternatives

There are also extensive video picture parameter control, although I wouldn’t venture much beyond some very minor block noise reduction. It’s worth remembering that the QDEO processor only feeds the prime HDMI output. Disc-loading speeds are good but not Usain Bolt fast. Lou Reed’s Berlin from Artificial Eye went from tray loading to menu screen in 31 seconds; the remastered and Java-heavy Goldfinger served up the 007 logo in 62 seconds.

Verdict

Overall, there’s no question that the Cambridge Audio Azur 751BD is a top-flight entertainer with a price to match. It’s on-line connectivity will pull in BD-Live content when required and play nice with media either on a drive or a Nas server. Some may bemoan its lack of a content portal with apps aplenty, but that’s not the thinking here. Instead, we have a high-fidelity component with a firm handle on the new network age of home theatre. ®